Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	3,214	5	9.7060	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41495	The compleat gentleman, or, Directions for the education of youth as to their breeding at home and travelling abroad in two treatises / by J. Gailhard ...	Gailhard, J. (Jean)	1678 (1678)	Wing G118; ESTC R11538	187,544	338

in time and co-equal or together equal in power these persons are distinguished not divided amongst them is an order without confusion the nature is spiritual and consequently immaterial and uncorruptible simple without any composition whether metaphysical of substance and accident physical of matter and form or moral of act and power It is infinite eternal unchangeable and independent Now this God is known to us in his Nature Attributes whether incommunicable such as we named just now or communicable as are his Justice Goodness Mercy and Wisdom whereof he is pleased to impart some drops to his creatures and in his works which his word doth inform us of either explicitly or by clear and necessary consequence Now therefore that there is a God in whom we live move and have our being w●o is a rewarder of all men according to their deeds who having made the world formed man after his image and that man through his disobedience infidelity and pride fell from that estate of innocency and integrity wherein he was created which not only brought guilt upon him and all mankind but also punishment and misery consisting in death of afflictions natural spiritual and eternal insomuch that thereby we are all fallen into temporal and become guilty of everlasting pains and damnation out of which we cannot be delivered by any strength wisdom or capacity of ours th●refore God out of his wonderful and infinite mercy promised a Saviour from time to time renewed the promises sealed and confirmed them by several types figures who would come in the fulness of times to satisfie his Justice appease his Wrath make a full expiation for our sins and reconcile us to God This Saviour was to represent our person put himself in our place and suffer the pains and torments we had deserved Because humane nature had offended he was to be a man otherwise it had not consisted with the justice of God to punish that nature which had not sinned and as farther it was necessary he should be a man to die so he was to be a God to conquer and overcome death In three words the substance of it is that there is one God and that through the fall of Adam we had been all damned if God had not given us a Saviour The knowledge of these things is necessary to salvation and except we believe it we cannot be saved now all this is clearly and intelligiby expressed in Scripture so that any ordinary capacity may easily be brought to understand it and this we call necessary to be known as to the substance Under the Old Testament to know and believe this was sufficient to salvation for their Faith was extended upon a Messias to come and not upon one already come so that till the time of the Declaration who this Saviour was the object of their Faith was an Individuum Vagum and they were in the dark who that particular person should be Wherefore Iohn the Baptist confesses his ignorance in this point when he saith As for me I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water said c. Hence it is that he sent two of his Disciples to ask him Art thou he that should come or do we look for another He knew him by the Spirit 's descending and remaining upon him This was the characteristical note But now there is a second thing necessary to salvation to be known by all who lived since the coming in the flesh of our Saviour and under the Gospel and this is necessary as to the declaration namely that the Saviour promised prophesied of and typified is that particular person Jesus Christ both God and man Son of the Virgin Mary born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod and when by the command of Caesar Augustus the world was to be taxed In a word the same that was Conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried and who did and suffered all things mentioned in the Gospel and in few words contained in the Apostolical Creed This same we ought to believe to be our only Saviour and Redeemer whom we ought to rely upon and put our trust in apply him to us by Faith and except we know and believe this there is no hope of salvation for us as Scripture doth fully and clearly declare so that this Principle may be infused into the meanest capacity Si Christum discis nihil est si caetera nescis Si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera discis But in the third place there are some things contained in Scriptures concerning which the Spirit of God hath not been pleased clearly to reveal his mind to us As revealed things belong to men so secret things belong to God which we must not pry into nor presume beyond what is written Prophecies are certainly dark till they become a History for to understand them before they are fulfilled one must be endued with a Prophetical Spirit Besides Prophecies there are other Points attended with many difficulties which Doctors themselves labour and study very hard to understand Such are the ways and manners of things That things are is a matter of fact and after God hath said in his word they are so it admits of no difficulty out of this Principle That God is the God of Truth but the manner of things is that which breeds scruples the word being either silent or dark about it As for instance that there is one God in Nature and three Persons Scripture doth clearly set it forth in several places and if this truth be obscure in one Text some other place of Scripture will clear it it being proper to Scripture to explain it self by it self yet how this Unity and Trinity can consist together though learned men be able to apprehend yet mean persons and low capacities are not capable of it so is the mystery of Incarnation how the second Person who hath Divine Nature can assume Humane Nature and yet the Father and Holy Ghost who have both Divine Nature should not be Incarnated and again how both Natures can be united in one Person and the idiomes and proprieties of every Nature should not be united but every Nature should retain her own attributes without mixture or confusion yet this we know to be true but cannot dive into the manner how this is done There are also other things as the day when the great judgment shall be and where it is to be and what places Heaven and Hell shall be in which arise from vanity and unnecessary Curiosity Other questions there are which men ought not to dispute too much about because they are somewhat problematical and good and learned men do differ in their opinion concerning them as may be this Whether there will be degrees of Glory and whether this world shall be changed as to the substance or only in the accidents all which

better than with what the Emperor Basilius in his excellent instruction exhorted his Son Leon to follow when he should come to the Empire Son neglect not the reading of ancient Histories for without pain you may find therein that which others have collected with mu●● labour you can learn what virtues made some to be honest men and for what vices others were accounted wicked In it you may observe all the differences of humane life and how many changes all things are subject to the inconstancy o● worldly affairs will appear to you and the notable falls of the greatest Empires of the world In short you may observe how bad actions ever are followed with some punishments and how good ones at one time or other are attended with rewards so that you must avoid the first for fear of falling into the hands of Divine Iustice and give up your self to these last to deserve the rewards which infallibly you shall receive Nothing can be added to these instructions which deserve to be written in letters of gold but I must say that Histories are to be read with some caution for most are censured for one thing or other there being nothing perfect in this world Cornelius Tacitus who thought amiss of Providence doth nevertheless flatter Vespasian with being a minister chosen by the gods to work miracles and give sight to a blind man and health to one who was sick in the City of Alexandria In which two things as one saith well he contradicts himself to become a flatterer this makes Tertullian call him a forger of lies Others do shew themselves partial thus by reason of jealousie between Plato and Xenophon this last speaks ill of Menon because he was Plato's good friend So because Herodotus had been ill used by the Corinthians in his Writings contrary to truth makes them run away in the Battel of Salamina so he omitted some things tending to the commendation of that people which might have been an ornament to his History Amongst the rest the solemn Prayer of the Corinthian Women to Venus to the end she would enflame their Husbands hearts to the Battel against the Persians And because Salustius was an enemy to Cicero he passes by the honour done to him after the suppression of Catalina's Conspiracy This vice Thucidides is cleared from by Marcellus in the History of his Life The same Herodotus and others have written some fabulous and false things not out of any desire they had so to do but for want of a true information Indeed to make credible a History it were to be wished that he who writes it had been present to the actions he mentioneth or had heard them from those who were present and yet he must not indifferently make use of every ones notes but chiefly of those who being concerned are able to declare the causes councels and ends aimed at which qualification makes me esteem Thucidides in the Athenian Wars And to speak the truth Ministers of State are the fittest men to write Histories or at least to furnish matter for it for they are acquainted with the true estate of affairs the grounds deliberations secret and underhand Treaties and with the will and interests of their Princes but either they have no time to do 't or else dare not thinking it not fit nor safe for them Lastly most are partial for their Nation or themselves and then say nothing to the advantage of their enemies but what is not possible for them to conceal 'T is as when the Children of Israel had no Cutlers amongst them they were forced to go to the Philistines to whet their Knives and Swords who were sure never to set them the right edge so either they will be silent of the brave Exploits of the enemies of their Nations or derogate very much from them to lessen their own losses and make greater their victories Upon this reason I judge of Annibals transcendent merit and warlike capacity For if Livius a Roman could not avoid to speak well of so dangerous an enemy of his Country what had it been if we could have seen his History written by a Carthaginian As for Divinity for certain the more one knows of it the better it will be yet because every one's genius and calling doth not require to be a Doctor of it I must shew how much is necessary for every one to know First it is required all should be instructed in the Principles of Religion common to all Nations namely that there is a God who is the first cause of all things and hath his being from from himself and so through the Articles of Christian Reformed Religion as they are set down in our Confession of Faith and Catechisms whether they be the Churches or of particular men as Ball 's Perkins's which is one of the plainest clearest easiest yet as much methodical as any and of Primate Vshers which is an excellent one but for Christians of a higher form the Assemblies Catechism is full intelligible and excellent Then they must be versed in Scriptures because their Faith is to be built upon 't wherefore they should have at hand one or two Texts at least to ground upon every Article of their Belief In a word I would have every young man well principled and so well grounded in his Religion that according to the Precept of Saint Peter they may be ready to give an account of their Faith to every one that asks it not only declaring what it is that they believe but also giving their reasons and proofs for it and answering objections which others can make against it for 't is not enough to assert but also one must defend his Religion for fear when he goeth abroad he should be moved and shaken from it Having affirmed that we ought to be versed in Scriptures because our Faith is grounded thereupon and it being known how in some places they contain things difficult and above any ordinary capacity I think it necessary to enlarge more up●n this the more because the simple and ignorant ought as well to know what they believe as the greatest Scholar every one being to answer for himself and to be justified by his own Faith waving here the great question we have with the Roman Church concerning reading of Scriptures by common people which is not only lawful but also necessary for them David bearing this testimony that it makes wise the simple gives knowledge to the ignorant opens the eyes of the blind and many things more to this purpose I say Scriptures contain things necessary to be known first as to the substance that there is one God the maker of the world and of all things therein and that he is the preserver thereof all what he saith we must believe to be true and in him we ought to trust and put our confidence although there be but one God in nature yet there are three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost co-essential in nature co-eternal